Abu Dhabi’s second largest developer by market value posted a net profit of 67.3 million dirhams ($18.3 million)compared with 59.3 million dirhams in the same quarter last year, it said in a statement on the Abu Dhabi bourse.

Analysts forecast average net profit 129.6 million dirhams net profit for the third quarter.

The developer’s third-quarter revenues more than doubled to 890.4 million dirhams compared with 387.8 million dirhams in the same period in 2010. That was offset by a surge in cost of revenue which increased to 720.4 million dirhams as against 196 million dirhams for the year earlier period.

“We continue to see pick-up in sales and leasing demand during the period, partly driven by our innovative lease to own and rent to own products,” Abubaker Seddiq Al Khouri, Soruouh’s managing director said in the statement.

Most Abu Dhabi developers have been focusing on completion and delivery of existing projects after suffering big losses during the global financial crisis, which put an end to a six-year construction boom.

Sorouh said earlier this month that it expects projects awarded by the government to be a core part of its developments in the short term.